And the best part IMO is his line against lefties: .357/.415/.679 in 84 at-bats this year. Pretty great for a young LHH power hitter.

I haven't seen much hype about this guy, but he seems pretty promising.

Here's his scouting report from Sox Prospects:Scouting Report: Left-handed corner infielder, with filled out frame. Not overly athletic. Displays strong plate discipline and advanced approach. Sweet spot for pitches down and in due to upward swing path. Average batspeed. Needs improvement covering outer third. Can be long with his swing, but stays back to hit inside of the ball. Gap-to-gap hitter. Solid-average power potential. Strong pull power into right-centerfield gap. Plays both third and first base defensively. Not enough range and quickness to play third. Learning how to play first base. Shows skills to handle position, but feet are on the slow side. Hands are not overly soft. Son of former major league pitcher Jeff Shaw. Previously drafted in the 32nd round in 2008 by the Red Sox, but elected to attend Kent State instead. Excellent work ethic and makeup. Student of the game. Batspeed will be tested in upper levels. Ceiling of an average regular on a second division team.

He should be promoted until he can't hit. He's too old already to really worry about screwing him up by advancing him too quickly. If he has a long loopy swing (and it sounds like he does), then he needs to find the wall, hit it, and see if he can climb it as fast as possible. I doubt however that he gets more AB in a Red Sox uniform than say Lars.

He's started at 3B three or so times in the last two weeks (now about a month since this story). He virtually skipped low A after playing a handful of games after short-season ended in 2011, so there is not really a rush to move him up - especially if he is working with certain coaches on learning how to play 3B effectively. Being a 23 at AA and 24 at AAA is no sin.

Starting the year in AA as a 23-year-old for the entire season, as you said last spring, is actually not a bad progression at all. Given his ability to draw a walk, his power, and the chance that the Red Sox will need first-base depth this season, I wonder if Shaw shouldn't be considered one of the more underrated prospects in the system right now. With the rumors of the Red Sox looking at Mike Carp, a strong spring training might propel Shaw to the doorstep of the major leagues.

From the minor league roundup 5/7 post: "Reading wasted no time in testing Shaw at third base; Albert Cartwright bunted the game's first pitch but Shaw charged, gloved the
ball and made a strong throw to first. "It felt good to get the first one out of the way," said Shaw, who played third base at Kent State but only once at the position for the Sea Dogs last season."

I like that he is playing third, hopefully he will play more there and show that he can field the position competently. If he could cover both corner spots, that makes him a more valuable player and could help him get to the big leagues faster.

He also hit his first HR of the season last night. On the year, he's at .250/.406/.360 in 100 at-bats. Sweet OBP, but really low slugging, so it's good to see the HR finally come. He'd gone 2 for his last 21 before last night, but now has hits in 3 straight games, so hopefully the slump is over.

Shaw is really struggling, going 3 for his last 34, dropping his season line all the way down to .219/.355/.343. He's 0 for his last 10 with 5 whiffs in that stretch. Yikes. He's still walking a lot on the season but lately he hasn't been, as he has fanned 12 times since his last walk.

He also hasn't walked in his last 8 games, so I'm thinking maybe his hot streak was a reaction to pitchers easily getting ahead of him in the count. Maybe the pitchers adjusted to his patient approach, and now he's adjusting back?

6 for 56 in July, just horrific. As a 23-year-old first baseman in AA, those numbers are putting his career in serious jeopardy. I kind of hope he's been playing through injury, so that there would be a chance that he could bounce back.

Shaw has made significant strides with the Saguaros. In Week 5, he had a league-leading .538 batting average, .667 on-base percentage and .923 OPS with 12 total bases. Shaw had two doubles, one home run, two RBIs, five walks and five runs scored.

8. Travis Shaw, Red Sox: The son of former All-Star reliever Jeff Shaw had a breakthrough 2012 season but struggled in Double-A last year. He got back on track by hitting .361 with five homers in 17 Arizona Fall League games, and he has consistently demonstrated an ability to hit for power and draw walks. If Shaw can curb a tendency to get homer-conscious, which reared its head in 2013, he could hit for a decent average as well.

Shaw starts the season in Portland. Hopefully he'll hit like he did in the AFL, not like he did in Portland last year. Though to be fair, he hit 16 homers and had a .342 OBP for the season last year, which isn't great but not terrible. His problem was the long, awful slump he had, which he believes was because he got pull-conscious. He claims his strong Fall numbers were from making an adjustment to stop trying to hit home runs all the time.

After a 2 for 23 slump, Shaw sat out from 4/14 to 4/18 as the Sea Dogs had three straight postponements. Since the rainouts, he has gone 7 for 15 with 2 HRs, 6 RBIs and 3 walks with 1 K.

Season numbers have bumped up to .220/.371/.340. Still only at 50 at-bats on the year, but nice to see some life from him. Maybe the time off from the rainouts helped him get it together psychologically, or something, and hopefully he'll keep it going.

Shaw was a career 20% strikeout guy at pretty much every level coming into this year. This season, with minimal impact on his walks, he's cut that in half and is currently at 10.5%. That's a massive change and, if he can keep this up, makes him a legitimately interesting player. Does anyone know what might explain this?

Shaw was a career 20% strikeout guy at pretty much every level coming into this year. This season, with minimal impact on his walks, he's cut that in half and is currently at 10.5%. That's a massive change and, if he can keep this up, makes him a legitimately interesting player. Does anyone know what might explain this?

Not to go all Debbie Downer, but might it have something to do with the fact that he's now in his third year at double-A?

Not to go all Debbie Downer, but might it have something to do with the fact that he's now in his third year at double-A?

True, but his total time in AA (over parts of 3 seasons) is just over 1.5 years. Going into today's game he had a wOBA of .405 and a wRC+ of 152. He already has a HR and single in today's game. His 2013 season at Portland may have been a blip, after his 2012 season at High A, where he also had excellent numbers.

Another home run for Travis Shaw giving him 10 on the season, putting him 1 off the league lead. At this point his wOBA and wRC+ are within sight of Mookie territory. Of course Mooke is a 2nd baseman and Shaw plays 1st and 2+ years older, but still....Shaw's now put up these numbers for a 1/3rd of a season. If he can stay around this mark, he's back in prospect territory, even if only as a trading chip.

Another home run for Travis Shaw giving him 10 on the season, putting him 1 off the league lead. At this point his wOBA and wRC+ are within sight of Mookie territory. Of course Mooke is a 2nd baseman and Shaw plays 1st and 2+ years older, but still....Shaw's now put up these numbers for a 1/3rd of a season. If he can stay around this mark, he's back in prospect territory, even if only as a trading chip.

I don't think he's much of a trade chip as he's old for his level and strictly a 1B/DH defensively. He also had a slow first few weeks but since then has been dominating AA (May slash line of .357/.438/.679) however, so it really does seem like time to get him up to AAA. All the club has to do is cut bait with one of Snyder or Roberts, let the remaining guy play 2B, and have Shaw split time with Lavarnway between 1B and DH.

I think the goal with Shaw should be to have an in-house alternative we don't hate for when Napoli's deal expires after 2015. That gives him the rest of this season and all of next to get up to speed with AAA and hopefully squeeze in an ML cup of coffee while he's at it. He just turned 24 a month ago so he would be 25, soon to turn 26, for the 2016 season.

I don't think he's much of a trade chip as he's old for his level and strictly a 1B/DH defensively. ...

Actually, Shaw is about 6 months younger than the average age of a position player in the Eastern League; he's only 4 months older than SS Devin Marrero. He hit well at every level of the minors until the tougher pitching of the EL found the holes in his swing last year. The Sox sent him to the Arizona Instructional League, last fall, where he excelled, and, apparently, he's continued to make the correct adjustments in his approach/swing. He's only done it for a 1/3rd of a season, so he might have to prove it for another 1/3rd before a call up to Pawtucket for the last few weeks.

I don' know about Shaw being a replacement for Napoli or Ortiz, but he certainly could be a replacement for Mike Carp. Shaw's 2014 numbers hitting left-handed vs RH pitchers: .348 BA/.459 OBP/.663 SLG/1.123 OPS. One of the Sox problems, this year, is that they don't have enough players with options to shuttle a hot bat up and down between Pawtucket and Boston.

Actually, Shaw is about 6 months younger than the average age of a position player in the Eastern League; he's only 4 months older than SS Devin Marrero. He hit well at every level of the minors until the tougher pitching of the EL found the holes in his swing last year. The Sox sent him to the Arizona Instructional League, last fall, where he excelled, and, apparently, he's continued to make the correct adjustments in his approach/swing. He's only done it for a 1/3rd of a season, so he might have to prove it for another 1/3rd before a call up to Pawtucket for the last few weeks.

While I'm a big proponent of Shaw, I've always hated the notion of using average age of a given league to determine if a player is age-advanced or not. The reality, as evidenced by the group of non-prospects in their mid-20s at Salem, is that there are precious few actual prospects on a given ml team. The vast majority of guys in the minors are just being paid to play with the ones who have a shot. That majority massively skews the age sample, and comparing a borderline decent prospect like Shaw to that average tells us next to nothing. He really should only be compared to the avg age of guys in that league who have gone on to have a career. Only then can you know if he's ahead or behind the curve.

While I'm a big proponent of Shaw, I've always hated the notion of using average age of a given league to determine if a player is age-advanced or not. The reality, as evidenced by the group of non-prospects in their mid-20s at Salem, is that there are precious few actual prospects on a given ml team. The vast majority of guys in the minors are just being paid to play with the ones who have a shot. That majority massively skews the age sample, and comparing a borderline decent prospect like Shaw to that average tells us next to nothing. He really should only be compared to the avg age of guys in that league who have gone on to have a career. Only then can you know if he's ahead or behind the curve.

So are you also implying that Marrero is nothing more than a "borderline decent prospect?" He'll turn 24 in August and he's still "stuck" in AA ball.

So are you also implying that Marrero is nothing more than a "borderline decent prospect?" He'll turn 24 in August and he's still "stuck" in AA ball.

I'd say that's a definite "yes" not just an implication. He has a higher floor than Travis Shaw because his defense is almost certainly ML capable at a high defensive value position, but lets not act like a guy who at 23 years old put up a .676 OPS in high-A is a real good prospect. Marrero is turning it around offensively this season despite the jump to superior competition, but he's got to keep it up if he's going to be viewed as a real prospect. Too many mL SS have had the same skills as Marrero only to see their bat hold them back year after year until they're complete non-prospects. Marrero was clearly on that rack just last season. He's turning it around this season.

Oh wait, they do. It turns out, Travis Shaw is exactly where he is supposed to be. However, it's not exactly ideal to be neutral on this track. The best prospects tend to be well ahead of the curve on age-advancement.

On a broader note, you should use the SoxProspects tool, not a generic age-relative-to-level comparison because SoxProspects has already done the work of comparing to average prospect age instead of to average age, and the former is the number we all care about.

Shaw is probably going to be promoted soon (along with Betts). If he produces, he is still likely to be blocked in the short term at AAA, but Napoli is not here forever and neither is Ortiz. There also aren't any other 1B prospects in the system that will force him off down the depth chart. Barring injury, he's likely to spend all of next season in AAA, at which point the 1B/DH picture could look very different from how it does today. I don't see him as trade-bait, really, because, once again, there are no 1B prospects behind him and depth is kind of a good thing to have.

A prospect is just a possibility right? A designation that some guy may be able to make it as a ML ball player. I understand that guys who are more successful relative to their age/experience peers are perhaps more likely to continue that success. It strikes me as a bit odd that we're writing off 24 and 25 year olds "as prospects" while they're enjoying success at AA. Let 'em fail somewhere first.

I'd say that's a definite "yes" not just an implication. He has a higher floor than Travis Shaw because his defense is almost certainly ML capable at a high defensive value position, but lets not act like a guy who at 23 years old put up a .676 OPS in high-A is a real good prospect. Marrero is turning it around offensively this season despite the jump to superior competition, but he's got to keep it up if he's going to be viewed as a real prospect. Too many mL SS have had the same skills as Marrero only to see their bat hold them back year after year until they're complete non-prospects. Marrero was clearly on that rack just last season. He's turning it around this season.

You're welcome to you own system of evaluation, since it's all a matter of subjectivity, but a quick scan of Baseball America's top 100 prospects list shows around 15 prospects that were older than Shaw at the time of the compilation (and that's not including Jose Abreu or Tanaka.) If BA agreed with you they'd draw the cutoff at age 23. Shaw is a batter with a big swing, who hit at every level until he hit AA, spent a year and then a month in instructional league to make an adjustment that's been successful, so far. We'll see if he can build on that success.

You're welcome to you own system of evaluation, since it's all a matter of subjectivity, but a quick scan of Baseball America's top 100 prospects list shows around 15 prospects that were older than Shaw at the time of the compilation (and that's not including Jose Abreu or Tanaka.) If BA agreed with you they'd draw the cutoff at age 23. Shaw is a batter with a big swing, who hit at every level until he hit AA, spent a year and then a month in instructional league to make an adjustment that's been successful, so far. We'll see if he can build on that success.

I didn't take the time to check, but my premise for Shaw to become a "prospect" is to sustain his success for another 6 weeks and earn time at AAA. The question to ask is how many of the 24+ prospects on BA's list hadn't had any time in AAA before 2013. And, again, my upside for Shaw is to become a replacement for Mike Carp, not Mike Napoli.

Well now Shaw is where he's supposed to be if he's a prospect. Give him a month to adjust to AAA pitching and then 2 months to see if he's mlb material. He's been pounding AA right handed pitching this year.

Well now Shaw is where he's supposed to be if he's a prospect. Give him a month to adjust to AAA pitching and then 2 months to see if he's mlb material. He's been pounding AA right handed pitching this year.

This also would imply that Lavarnway's being called up - and subsequently released/traded when Napoli comes off the DL.

Why the latter? They can send him down and DH him once Napoli is healthy. Also, Shaw can spend some time at 3B in AAA. There are plenty of AAA at bats to go around to the guys who need them.

Well someone's got to go in order to make room on the 40 man roster for Mookie Betts. With Steven Wright off the DL, the 40 man roster is full. Looking at it, Lavarnway looks to be the most expendable with Betts replacing him as the RH bat to call up in case of injury.

Well someone's got to go in order to make room on the 40 man roster for Mookie Betts. With Steven Wright off the DL, the 40 man roster is full. Looking at it, Lavarnway looks to be the most expendable with Betts replacing him as the RH bat to call up in case of injury.

Betts is not going to need a 40-man roster spot before Napoli comes off the DL. Betts might need one by the end of the season, but there's a decent chance a 60-day injury creates that space for him. Lavarnway may get traded too, but that has more to do with offseason 40-man space and options next year than with this year, or making space at AAA for Shaw. Lavarnway isn't getting DFA'd unless an actual need arises for a roster space, and Butler probably goes first anyway.

Betts is not going to need a 40-man roster spot before Napoli comes off the DL. Betts might need one by the end of the season, but there's a decent chance a 60-day injury creates that space for him. Lavarnway may get traded too, but that has more to do with offseason 40-man space and options next year than with this year, or making space at AAA for Shaw. Lavarnway isn't getting DFA'd unless an actual need arises for a roster space, and Butler probably goes first anyway.

Given the dubious prospects for Victorino's long-term health, a rh-bat is always needed. Unless Lavarnway surprises us all in the next two weeks, the Sox will look to Betts as that bat. What other plan do they possibly have that has any chance at success? Lavarnway in a trade would bring back organizational filler.. at best.

Given the dubious prospects for Victorino's long-term health, a rh-bat is always needed. Unless Lavarnway surprises us all in the next two weeks, the Sox will look to Betts as that bat. What other plan do they possibly have that has any chance at success? Lavarnway in a trade would bring back organizational filler.. at best.

If the Red Sox were planning on using Betts in MLB anytime soon, he'd be in AAA right now. That doesn't mean they won't, but it does mean it's not in the current plan. I'm not stating that Lavarnway will last the season with Boston or that Betts will not finish the season in Boston. Both of those are things that might happen. But, Lavarnway will go back to AAA as soon as either Victorino or Napoli comes off the DL and Betts won't get added to the 40-man roster until he is being called up to the majors, which is completely unrelated to those 2 outcomes. And, more importantly for this thread, none of this has anything to do with Shaw getting promoted. Lavarnway's call up created the immediate space for him, but Lavarnway going back down just means that Snyder loses his playing time, not that Lavarnway gets DFA'd.

If the Red Sox were planning on using Betts in MLB anytime soon, he'd be in AAA right now. That doesn't mean they won't, but it does mean it's not in the current plan. I'm not stating that Lavarnway will last the season with Boston or that Betts will not finish the season in Boston. Both of those are things that might happen. But, Lavarnway will go back to AAA as soon as either Victorino or Napoli comes off the DL and Betts won't get added to the 40-man roster until he is being called up to the majors, which is completely unrelated to those 2 outcomes. And, more importantly for this thread, none of this has anything to do with Shaw getting promoted. Lavarnway's call up created the immediate space for him, but Lavarnway going back down just means that Snyder loses his playing time, not that Lavarnway gets DFA'd.

Ben Cherington yesterday said that they are talking about moving Betts up to AAA.